Wear red and black if you're on the side of Evil or blue and black if you're on the side of Good. Bonus points (prize entry) to anyone who dresses up as a vampire, shape shifter, vampire slayer, angel or faerie!

The authors will discuss how they were inspired by these classics, why Stoker and Austen's themes are still relevant to teens/YAs today, the ongoing conversation of books over the generations, and much more.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Diversity in YA Fiction: founded by YA authors Cindy Pon (Silver Phoenix, Fury of the Phoenix) and Malinda Lo (Ash, Huntress), Diversity in YA seeks to bring attention to MG and YA books featuring people of color and LGBT characters. Peek: "We envision DIYA as a positive, friendly gathering of readers and writers who want to see diversity in their fiction. Every week on our website we'll be featuring books that include diversity, from realistic, contemporary novels to absorbing historicals and adventurous fantasy."

Cindy and Malinda will be on tour to at least four cities in 2011. Authors who'll join them along the way include:

Cool Down Time: Handling Criticism Effectively by Mary Lindsey from QueryTracker.net. Peek: "Rushing into revisions or reacting immediately when you feel defensive will not only make your revisions less effective, it will potentially alienate you from the very people trying to help you become a better writer."

Erzsi Deàk Launches HEN & INK – A New Literary Studio and Transmedia Company from Austin SCBWI. Peek: "With a growing list of prize-winning clients and new voices from around the world, president and founder of Hen & Ink, Erzsi Deàk, meets often with publishers in the U.S. and U.K. and aggressively markets domestic and foreign rights." Note: post includes submission guidelines and manuscript areas of interest.

How Many Picture Books Should I Query? by Mary Kole from Kidlit.com. Peek: "I tell my picture book writer clients — and these are clients...people who’ve already cleared the 'hurdle' — that one out of every ten of their picture book ideas/manuscripts is going to be saleable."

Deepening Your Characters Needs by Stina Lindenblatt from Query Tracker. Peek: "...the pyramid is divided into five levels. The needs on the bottom level (physiological) have to be satisfied before you can worry about those in the next level (safety and security). Same deal with the third level (love and belonging). The needs in the first two levels have to be dealt with first. This idea continues all the way to the top of the pyramid, to self-actualization." See also Personality: Creating Real Characters by Darcy Pattison from Fiction Notes.

Children’s Literature Guide: Elizabeth Kennedy, About.com from Children's Books and Reviews. Peek: "...the illustrations in a picture book should both complement and extend the written story so the effectiveness and artistic value of the illustrations are part of the criteria I use for picture books. When it comes to fiction for older kids, 'voice' becomes particularly important."

Passionate About Picture Books? from Bethany Hegedus from Hunger Mountain, a VCFA Journal of the Arts. Peek: "For the winter 2011 issue, I am compiling a list of quotes from authors, illustrators, agents, educators and parents to be included in a piece dedicated to the ongoing art and craft of the picture book."

Whether you're someone who prays or sends good thoughts, please send them to L.K. Madigan and her family.

Booklist says of Blessed: "Sure, the vampires, werewolves, and angels provide the lure, but Smith’s obvious affection for her characters makes this more.... Pretty lengthy, but if this is your cup of tea, you’ll relish it."

Blessed Online Countdown Event by Valorie from Truth Be Told. Valorie will be posting reviews, book trailers, teaser excerpts, and fun author-and-character interviews. She's giving away two bookplate-autographed copies of Blessed, each with a Magnetic Sanguini's menu wipe board and pen. She's also giving away one board to (a) a random commenter and another to (b) "a person who helps promote the release of the book, randomly chosen based on tweets, adding it to goodreads, and blogging. It will go to someone who didn't win the hardcover." Giveaway deadline: 11 p.m. PST Jan. 24. See details.

See Teaser Tuesday (features two short excerpts from Tantalize) and an Interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith (features, short, romantic excerpt from Blessed) from Valorie from Truth Be Told. Peek: "Both of the previous novels end with calls to action, either express or implied. Loose ends, if you will, that I wanted to more fully address, and I felt that both of those characters [Quincie and Zachary] deserved the chance to reach their full potential."

For the winter 2011 issue, I am compiling a list of quotes from authors, illustrators, agents, educators and parents to be included in a piece dedicated to the ongoing art and craft of the picture book. In 250 words (or fewer), contributors will be asked to focus one of the following:

what the picture book means to them;

why it is his/her chosen art form (whether artist or illustrator);

why they work behind the scenes on bringing picture books to life;

favorite memory of a book (could be one created by the author, illustrator, agent, editor or one read to as a child or read from to children);

the evolution of the picture book--where one sees the industry going;

why picture books are needed;

the changing appeal of the picture book, nonfiction, or otherwise;

the magic of art and text.

As the quotes will be short but numerous, Hunger Mountain, is not able to pay for the quote contribution. However, a link to a blog, website, as well as the contributor's name will be included.

As an author of paranormal romance, I’ve introduced my share of otherworldly characters.

I based the fairies in Fairy Tale (Delacorte, 2009) partly on existing classical folklore and mythology, bending the rules and the lore when appropriate for my story.

But with the Sandmen in Sleepless (Delacorte, 2010), I had more creative leeway. Very little classical lore exists about Sandman, so I had more freedom to create the Sandmen I wanted to create. After all, this is fiction. You are only limited by the depths of your imagination.

However, you can’t let the freedom go to your head. Good fantasy is always built on a foundation of human experience and emotion. It is that which will make your reader identify with your story.

Therefore, while your creatures may be otherworldly, they must possess some human traits which will make your reader warm up to them. Maybe your character doesn’t speak; maybe it doesn’t even look human, but something about it must be human. For example, even if your main character is a gelatinous glob of goo, maybe it can quiver in fear every time a certain individual is near.

A common mistake among beginners in writing fantasy is the tendency to fill page after page with wild happenings, crazy critters, out-there worlds that are so very different from our own, the reader feels disengaged. They write a plot-driven quest fantasy where it’s just one obstacle after another until the quest is fulfilled. Things just happen to the characters; very little do the characters determine what happens.

This is because the writer has not fully fleshed out the characters. Good fantasy is equally plot and character driven. In any novel, your characters make things happen and create conflict because of who they are.

Unfortunately, with fantasy, it’s so easy to rely on archetypes, just because all those fairy tales of our youth seem to take place in fantasy worlds. It seems only natural to have clichés.

Real characters are not fully good or fully evil. It's fine to rely on archetypes as a start for building your characters, but can you turn them on their heads?

In Fairy Tale, I made the fairy the star football player. I'd read a dozen tales about a girl finding out she was a fairy princess, and I thought it would be interesting (and way more fun) to have the macho guy learn that he was the fairy. Imagine him trying to explain that to his friends around the locker room!

Unexpected quirks in your characters can help to keep your fantasy fresh and entertaining. Creating a character in fantasy is not unlike creating a character for a realistic novel—as with all characters, you add in weaknesses and fears, goals and motivations, and a back story. All these things will make the people in your story--as well as the creatures--come alive.

When Gwendolyn "Dough" Reilly’s boyfriend and best friend Wish moves away in seventh grade, the only consolation she can find is in her family bakery’s donuts.

Now, it’s sophomore year, and Wish is coming back. But in only three years, they’ve both changed—drastically. he’s seriously overweight, and suddenly Wish is the most popular guy in school, and girls everywhere want him.

Dough has doubts that appearances don’t matter and that Wish can love her as she is, so she launches into a plan designed to keep them together.

That is, until she discovers that Wish’s gorgeous looks and charm might not be all they appear to be.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Blessed is the third and latest installment in the Tantalize series, to be released by Candlewick on Jan. 25, 2011. This YA novel is a contemporary romantic thriller that offers a nod and a wink to Bram Stoker's classic Dracula (1897). Note: Sanguini's is the fictional vampire-themed restaurant featured in the series.

Reminder: Cat Calls E-Book by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Candlewick, 2010) is now available for free to Kindle users. See details. Note: Cat Calls is set in the Tantalize series universe.

Blessed Countdown at Truth Be Told

Blessed Online Countdown Event by Valorie from Truth Be Told. Valorie will be posting reviews, book trailers, teaser excerpts, and fun author-and-character interviews.

She's giving away two bookplate-autographed copies of Blessed, each with a Magnetic Sanguini's menu wipe board and pen.

She's also giving away one board to (a) a random commenter and another to (b) "a person who helps promote the release of the book, randomly chosen based on tweets, adding it to goodreads, and blogging. It will go to someone who didn't win the hardcover."

Jimi Hendrix was many things: a superstar, a rebel, a hero, an innovator. But first, he was a boy named Jimmy who loved to draw and paint and listen to records.

A boy who played air guitar with a broomstick and longed for a real guitar of his own.

A boy who asked himself a question: Could someone paint pictures with sound?

This a story of a talented child who learns to see, hear, and interpret the world around him in his own unique way. It is also a story of a determined kid with a vision, who worked hard to become a devoted and masterful artist.

Looking back, were you surprised to debut in 2010, or did that seem inevitable? How long was your journey, what were the significant events, and how did you keep the faith?

Sometime around 2002, I first came upon Wendie Old’s picture book To Fly (Clarion, 2002). It was 48 pages, illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker (an artist I greatly admire), and a beautiful meld of story and image.

Out of work at that time, I was playing a good deal of electric guitar—a passion of mine—and began delving deeply into the blues. Wherever I looked, it seemed, there was Jimi Hendrix, so I began reading the classic tome on his life, Electric Gypsy (1995).

Reading through the eyes of my talented wife (children’s book author Susanna Reich), I was moved by the tender details of Jimi’s childhood, and began to imagine a story for kids that was both inspiring and child-friendly.

In secret, sitting at my desk in our library (shared with Susanna), I began writing what I thought was a picture book text—which eventually topped out at 6,000 words.

When Susanna found out what I was doing, she raised her eyebrows and most likely questioned my sanity: Jimi Hendrix…for kids? 6,000 words?

No matter. It was now 2003, but I held tightly to my naïve vision of a 48-page picture book (like Wendie Old’s), which would be marketed to “older kids.” In truth, I had little idea of what I was doing, though there is often a saving grace in that.

I showed it to an agent, who told me it was well-written, but clearly not a picture book text. So I revised it—down to 3,500 words—and insisted on cutting it no further. At this point, I was given the name of an editor with an interest in rock and roll, and sent it off.

Her assistant editor contacted me (the head editor was on maternity leave), and expressed interest herself, asking for another revision—done over the course of six to eight months—to bring the text down below 2,000 words.

I was happy, she was happy, and her boss (now returned from maternity leave) was happy…but—long story short—over the course of several editorial committee meetings, the publisher and his marketing person nixed the idea altogether: How would they ever sell Jimi Hendrix in Ohio?

Dispirited and angry (it was now 2004), I began working on another picture book text—this time, about the young Bob Dylan (Little, Brown – May ’11)—and found my present agent.

He believed in my vision for both books (he’s an avid Dylanophile) and began sending out the Hendrix manuscript to picture book editors. We had so many different responses—from “you can’t do a picture book on Jimi Hendrix!” to “we’d prefer a more conventional biography,” to “we like it, but….” So many buts.

But I persisted—buoyed by my agent’s constant reassurance—and eventually landed my present editor, the incredible Lynne Polvino of Clarion, bassist in a punk band and Vision Shaper Supreme.

With Lynne’s help, we focused the story more tightly on “this boy who loves sound and color,” and revised the manuscript once again—several times, in fact—until we were both satisfied with it. On Lynne’s first pitch to her boss, the book finally sold to Clarion (Wendie Old’s publisher!) in June of 2006.

But the story doesn’t end there. Illustrator Javaka Steptoe—applying his own vision to the task—began visiting Seattle, working with elementary kids in the city schools, and devising a process—carved, collaged, painted and silkscreened images on recycled plywood from Jimi’s hometown—to create his masterful spreads for the book.

Three years later (in September 2009), he turned in the finished work to oohs and aahs from the Clarion staff and my agent (I’d still not seen anything).

With the revising and proofreading now complete, there followed galleys, color proofs, F&G’s, and an eventual paper-on-board hard copy in Spring 2010.

In October, the book hit the stores, eight years from the time I first laid eyes on Wendie’s To Fly.

How did I keep the faith? Notably, Jimi (appearing as an impeccably-dressed, large-bodied American Indian, with ponytail) visited me in a dream, pointing to a “shining city” in my parents’ backyard, the night before the first editor wrote me of her interest in the story.

But most importantly, it was the ongoing support of both my wife and my agent that saw me through. There was a lot of hand-holding (literal and metaphoric), a lot of hoping and strategizing along the way, and a good deal of misery despite my deep belief in “the project.”

But now we’re here, with great response to the book, excellent reviews, an NPR interview, and a few more raised eyebrows (which are to be expected). It’s been a great ride, and I doubt seriously if I’ll ever write a 6,000-word picture book text ever again!

As someone with a full-time day job, how do you manage to also carve out time to write and build a publishing career? What advice do you have for other writers trying to do the same?

I’m a clinical social worker and psychotherapist (three and a half days a week), specializing in the area of addiction with both teens and adults. Most of the kids I see are 14-15—the age that Jimi is in my book—and I love their humor, idealism, and spunk.

The stories I hear are often sad, and involve physical and emotional abuse, sexual molestation, grief or trauma, and missing or estranged family members.

So I imagine many of these kids to be much like Jimi, with talents and dreams that need to be nurtured by reading good picture books at an early age. Or at least that is my hope. And when I come home from “the job,” it can take time to transition to my “writing life,” even though the process of writing is itself both healing and energizing.

As a longtime visual artist who has also worked with adult artists as a therapist, I encourage people to be human rather than superhuman. Many of us do something (for money) in addition to writing for kids, and we are not machines.

What you write is who you are, and we have to take time to acknowledge whatever it is we’re going through at any given time. That said, the value of a good walk, an inspiring telephone call or email conversation with a friend/spouse or fellow artist/writer, and a delicious piece of cake, should never be underestimated.

If we want to get fresh feeling and ideas into our work, we must treat ourselves well, be kind and forgiving, and make use of bold—and even seemingly naïve—ideas and inspiration when they surface.

We are receivers, after all, listening to the muses and everything around us, just as Jimi did when he stepped out onto the porch of his boarding house so many years ago.

We’re all children—at every age.

Cynsational Notes

Gary Golio is a fine artist and a clinical social worker/psychotherapist who works with children and teens, specializing in the area of addiction. Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow is his first book. He lives in Ossining, New York.

Javaka Steptoe won a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award for Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow.

When I read Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt (Front Street, 2006)(a National Book Award finalist and a truly memorable story) I had an inkling of the ending and put the book down for a bit.

I wasn’t sure I would be satisfied if the book went in that particular direction, although when I picked it up again, the author convinced me it was ultimately the right choice.

What convinced me even more was the author’s note at the end, in which she spoke of her younger sister who had died at the age of eleven. The fact that the author was exploring her sister’s death in the book added a further richness to my reading.

My novel In a Heartbeat (Walker, 2010) is about a heart transplant. It’s the story of two teenage girls. Eagan is a competitive figure skater who has a new boyfriend and a shining career ahead of her. She’s sassy, fearless, and is constantly at odds with her mom. Amelia is fourteen and has been sick for several years with heart disease. She’s homeschooled and has to use a special chair to go up and down the stairs at home. Amelia is shy, vulnerable, and very close to her mom.

This book is told from alternating viewpoints between the two girls. When Eagan hits her head during a competition and dies, Amelia gets her heart. But Amelia begins to notice new changes in herself, new personality traits. She has memories that aren’t her own. And Eagan is stuck in a gray foggy place where she’s trying to sort out her life before she can move on, where she has to reconcile the past and face her own death.

To me, it’s a story of loss and hope and love and redemption.

I started writing it after my nephew died in a motorcycle accident. We were surprised to learn that he’d designated himself as an organ donor on his license, not because we couldn’t see him doing that, but because he hadn’t told anyone of this decision.

His parents honored his request and our family was grateful that Jason’s death was able to bring life to others.

I’ve been in Jane Resh Thomas’s critique group for more than seven years. A question she often asks us is, “Where are you in this story? What does this story have to do with you?”

Because, for a story to have deeper meaning, it must somehow relate to our lives. This is true whether it’s a serious story or a humorous one.

Sometimes we don’t realize where we are in our stories until after we’ve written them, but it’s helpful to find that connection, not only for the sake of our readers who gain an added understanding, but to help us understand our own lives, to process our experiences.

Isn’t storytelling how people make sense of their own history? The stories we choose to tell dictate our interpretation of the world around us.

My favorite author, Harper Lee, said that “writing is a self-exploratory operation that is endless.” And a quote from her book comes to mind as well: “Atticus said that Jem was trying hard to forget something, but what he was really doing was storing it away for awhile, until enough time passed.” (from To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)).

Cynsational Notes

In a Heartbeat will be available in paperback in February, and Loretta's next novel, Unforgettable, will be out next fall from Walker.

About

New York Times & Publishers Weekly best-selling, award-winning author the Tantalize series, the Feral series and other critically acclaimed fiction for young readers. MFA Faculty, Vermont College of Fine Arts. Board member, We Need Diverse Books. Ohonvyetv!